Business Incubation Center
Business Model Canvas
Using the Business Model Canvas (BMC) to describe the business incubator you want to establish
To give you the best possible help PUM needs to know your ideas about your business incubator. To communicate these ideas in a standard way we want you to use the Business Model Canvas (BMC). The BMC is used to characterize all types of organizations (commercial companies as well as not-for-profit organizations). So it is also suitable for describing your business incubator. You will find this BMC in which your intentions and ideas can be displayed on one page below this text. The BMC consists of 9 blocks that, in conjunction, provide a clear picture of the desired business incubator. Below you will also find a short description of the required content for each of these blocks: this will help you to fill in the BMC correctly.
- Customer segments:
This block must describe the different groups of participants that you want to reach with the incubator. These start-ups are the heart of the incubator centre. It is all about them! Decide consciously which start-up groups you give access to the centre, for example based on assessments, but certainly also which start-up groups you do not want to guide as a start-up in the incubator. Every start-up has its own needs. Every idea to establish a business is unique. Try to visualize them as well as possible. Also make it clear as much as possible how many start-ups the incubator can coach and guide each year.
- Value propositions:
The value proposition is the reason why people who have an idea of becoming an entrepreneur choose to participate in this incubator centre. This second building block in the BMC accurately describes the services that the start-up can expect as a participant in the incubator. Is the service adequate? Is the coaching effective and can it lead to independent entrepreneurship? What does the start-up have to pay for this?
- Channels:
Depending on which target groups have to be served from the business incubator, it is important to indicate how the future participants should be approached and which media can be used for this. Formulating a clear message to each individual target group is a first step on the road to announcing the existence of the guidance centre for starting entrepreneurs in the region. The use of social media in this modern age is an important tool in this regard.
- Customer relationships:
Every start-up that has been admitted to the business incubator can be seen as a “customer”. It is important to determine whether they are participants or have a different position. For example, they can also be members of a formal entity or a tenant of space in the HUB. Which advisory services can start-ups use? With the help of the supervisors, they can be brought into contact with the business community, with capital providers, with the government when it comes to permits and suchlike. Which facilities can they use in a HUB to be set up? Is the possibility of prototyping or starting a first production provided for?
- Revenue streams:
A business incubator is of course a business in itself. It is of the utmost importance that it is clear from the initial phase of setting up the incubator which sources of income are available. It is possible that subsidy programs or donations from companies or banking institutions can be used to finance a first start, but this is also about medium-term continuity. The question is also how the participants, the start-ups, ultimately pay for the services offered.
- Key resources:
Key resources are the most important tools and resources needed to make the business incubator business model work. Resources can be physical (such as equipment), intellectual (market research, for example), financial or human (knowledge and skills of employees).
Which key resources are required depends on the type of business model that is chosen. But it is important that start-ups can use (for instance) ICT networks, 3D printers, drones, machines without restrictions to produce their products in the first release or prototypes and have the opportunity to use their own space in the HUB to present their first products and to receive their first customers.
- Key activities:
This is about your most important business activities. Like the key resources, they are needed to achieve a positive exploitation of the incubator with the defined value propositions. The most important question is: what activities will the business incubator develop and offer to ensure that the business model works? Which tasks and activities can the incubator perform under its own management and which can be better outsourced. How are management and other staff members involved and who is ultimately responsible for running the incubator?
- Key partners:
Collaboration in the region is of vital importance for a business incubator. The development and keeping of a so-called eco-system is a prerequisite for ultimately offering the participating start-ups an independent perspective in the environment in which they want to establish their business. The business community must be given a prominent place in the eco-system, but also (financial) banking institutions that can provide seed capital are of great importance. Of course, the government also plays an important role when it comes to regulations and permits. Educational institutions should also be involved in the eco-system of the business incubator.
- Cost structure:
A business model also includes costs. Map what is needed financially to run the business incubator. Are your most important resources, core activities and partners clearly defined? Then it is fairly easy to calculate all costs (on an annual basis). Depending on your profit orientation you align the total costs with your total revenue with a margin.
